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Vancouver — HD Mining supporters have launched a website to support the company, which has come under fire for its plans to develop a coal mine with the help of Chinese miners brought to Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

A website entitled Friends of HD Mining lists member companies in businesses including trucking, construction and restaurant services and says the initiative is funded by donations from those members.

It includes a bulletin headlined “HD Mining is under attack.”

“As fellow service providers to HD Mining, we feel the need to stand up for a company that has been supportive of all of us,” it says. “Certain organizations in B.C. have targeted HD Mining in an effort to succeed in their own selfish agenda. This website has been developed to provide a voice for the many Canadian-owned companies providing services to HD Mining and to set the record straight about our friend and client, HD Mining Ltd.”

The recent furor over foreign workers has overshadowed the positive impact of HD Mining’s project, says one of the business people involved in the campaign.

“The other side of the story is that there are hundreds of Canadians employed in the various service providers and suppliers. … These Canadian jobs are potentially in jeopardy if this company isn’t here with its investment,” James Rea, chief executive officer of Triland International, and a sponsor of the campaign, said on Thursday in a telephone interview.

Triland subsidiary Northern Lands Development Corp. recently built a $15.5-million, 92-unit housing project in Tumbler Ridge that it sold to HD Mining, Mr. Rea said.

Vancouver-based HD Mining has been in the spotlight in recent months for its plans to bring 200 Chinese employees to Tumbler Ridge to work on its Murray River coal project, which would provide metallurgical, or steel-making, coal for export markets.